ALASKA LACUNA EXPEDITION

Graham Zimmerman and Mark Allen have been learning and climbing together since their early days of alpine climbing. Bonded by strong partnership and motivated by steep alpine terrain they will fly onto the Kahiltna glacier and continue their progression as athletes and good friends on the high peaks of the Alaska Range.

No More Second Guessing - An Introduction

I was perplexed for a moment, Graham was below at a hanging belay and I had climbed until he had no more rope to give me. For several minutes I dug down to the wall through sugar snow looking for some feature to attach an anchor to. After several minutes of digging I found a steep sheet of granite with no cracks.The headlamp light faded down the fluted when I looked in Graham's direction. The pitch had started with a mixed section and then I had sprinted through this first unprotected snowfield and I was looking for any anchor. To follow this pitch Graham would have to pendulum 40ft to get on-line. I resumed digging. After digging out ten cubic meters of snow I found a flake in the rock. I quickly placed marginal pieces in this, and not knowing how securely it was attached to rest of the wall, I backed up this "C+" anchor by digging my heals into a stance. I held both lines with my hands; Graham was on belay.

Like this one, the most memorable moments of last year's trip come to mind from time to time as I go through day to day life twelve months later. They are not the reasons Graham and I are compelled to go back, they are bi-products of the stress, concentration, good and bad fortune that comes with navigating long, complex alpine terrain. Rather, we are motivated by the stories of other climbers on these steep faces that inspired us to go the first time. Like them, we hope to participate in a worthwhile project that adds something innovative to the history of alpinism and exploration of the region. Each year, we chose a new mountain feature that will test of our abilities and provoke our desire to see person go up that line for the first time.The Alaska Range is magnetic and compelling but it is as formidable as the Sahara. After several decades of climbing in the range there remains much to be explored. Each peak has unique characteristics that give it distinct allure and personality. Graham and I have four weeks do some recon and pick objectives that are suit our abilities. We are stoked to be back. For the month of May 2011 Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman are returning to the Alaska Range under the team name Pirates of Rad with aspirations to explore this year’s condition on the massifs of the Kahiltna Glacier. The Kahiltna is home to some of North America's largest alpine faces belonging to Mt. Hunter, Mt. Foraker, Denali, among others. Mark and Graham have had great success in the past (see Mt. Bradley: Black Diamimond Comprehensive Report) and are looking to forward to getting after it again.

We wanted to give you a call real quick and give you our one week update on our expedition 2011 on the Kahiltna Glacier. First of all when we first got here we dug in our camp at the Kahiltna landing strip and immediately set out on a six day trip to the rarely or never visited West Fork of the Lacuna Glacier. This entailed over twenty miles of glacier travel and it took us four days to recon the route out from the base of the peak which we intended to climb.

Graham Zimmerman transitions to booting while navigating one of the many ice falls of the Lacuna Glacier system. One of several reasons it would take 4 of our 7 days of supplies to recon a route through the gauntlet to our desired Advanced Base Camp. ~Mark Allen

We put ourselves below the unclimbed South face of a unnamed numbered peak on the Lacuna Glacier system and made it up 2,500 feet of a new route and were turned around due to bad snow conditions and an impending storm.

Graham Zimmerman Looks down 1000ft of newly discovered terrain on out bivi perch above the Northwest fork of the Lacuna Glacier. ~Mark Allen

So we ended up descending after one and a half days on route and ended up returning to our camp. We used the remaining time for the 20 mile of glacier travel back to base camp. It was pretty much an odyssey into a more remote area Alaska Range terrain into a zone that neither of us had ever seen with the naked eye and possibly hadn't been visited by another human being. It was a pretty wild adventure. Everything is going well, right now we're focusing on acclimatization. We're going to spend the next four days climbing the West ridge of Mt. Hunter, with the intent of climbing most of the route tomorrow, and bivying as high as we can to spend as much time as can above 10,000ft to start acclimatizing for bigger objects. Hope all is going well at home and wish you guys luck, and wish us luck on our next adventure up the West ridge of Hunter.

Approaching our first bivi with the west ridge below. We had finnished the crux of the route "the rock band" and it was time to dig in. We shared a great spot with Boon and Clint. Great night high on the West Ridge~Mark Allen

On the morning of the 12th Mark and I left Kahiltna Base Camp for the West Ridge of Mt. Hunter. This route is a super aesthetic feature that gains about 8,000 feet of elevation in 3 miles. It is an absolute classic of the Range and is included in the revered Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. Without a doubt, it lives up to its reputation. The night of the 12th found us halfway up the route just above the crux, a mixed section. We had climbed up miles of beautiful corniced ridge through a series of steep rock towers. We were joined at the bivy by our buddies and local Alaskans, Clint and Boon. We spend the evening hootin’ and holerin’ between our tents and to Kahiltna Base camp over the radio. The next morning saw us moving on to the ice face, four pitches of traversing steep ice on the side of the knife edge ridge. Above this, we rallied up the broadening ridge to the summit plateau where we found the one of the most spectacular bivys either one of us had ever experienced. A wave of ice and snow inside a crevasse allowed us the escape the developing winds and spin drift while watching the purples and pinks of alpenglow wash over Mt Foraker. The next morning it was obvious that our weather window was coming to an end so we ran to the summit, avoiding the summit ridge cornice via a natural Chutes and Ladders tube. On the summit, we were graced with gorgeous views of the AK range around us including Denali, Foraker, Huntington and peaks of the Ruth, where we spent time last season. We then proceeded to race back down to the Ramen Couloir just below the ice face and down-climbed that feature. As we reached the glacier, we were encompassed in pea soup. With zero visibility we attempted to navigate our way around the heinous ice fall that we knew was somewhere out there in the fog in front of us. But after a few hours of fruitless wandering we bivyed once more and finished our food. The next morning dawned clear and we found our way to the other side of the ice fall and by the afternoon we were back in the comforts of base camp. Now a storm is bearing down on the Range and we are resting -perfect timing. The West Ridge allowed us the gain a period of acclimatization and knowledge of the conditions up high in the mountains. When our bodies are ready and the weather is clear, we will begin to attack the steeper terrain this range has to offer and we’re psyched about it. Best wishes to everyone at home. We will check in again soon.

After 4 rest days and a several feet of new snow our focus and thoughts of climbing the North Buttress of Hunter via the Moon Flower had been derailed. Rather we used the days the mountains needed to shed, to return to the Lacuna project. With high pressure predicted we hoped this would be perfect timing for an ascent and it was.

We returned to the NW fork of the Lacuna glacier after confirming with the park that our trips there were the first visits to the area. Two days of glacier travel and retracing our tracks put us back at our previous Advanced Base Camp, below the south face of the unclimbed Peak 12,213.

Returning to the peak a second time and having a previous attempt (see post one) gave us integral knowledge of the south face and a quicker route down with a previously installed descent. This encouraged us to change strategies and take a much more aggressive approach by not taking any bivi equipment and committing to a single push. Our sights became set on a central buttress right of center, this being the most technical direct line on the south face not threatened by saracs capping the left flank of the mountain. The 2500ft granite buttress climbs several hundred feet of dihedrals and flakes finally narrowing to a thin exposed technical ridge and transitioning into a 1000ft couloir. The couloir ends on the summit ridge with 1000ft corniced knife ridge climbing to the summit cap.

Pitch 3 of the Nebula Arete. Graham takes of on classic mixed climbing. We targeted the steepest, safest, most asthetic line that we could express. It took us 12 hours to complete the arete before it joined the upper face then ridge of the Luner Spur.~Mark Allen

Graham Zimmerman on the Arete proper. At first light after I led the night block here we take on some of the best mixed climbing either of us have had in the mountains. M6 solid and good gear and the possition was amazing~Mark Allen

On May 23rd at 8:30pm we left our tent and skis at 7500ft on the NW fork of the Lacuna for the summit of unclimbed peak 12,214. The climbing on the lower buttress was several pitches of excellent steep mixed climbing with M6 cruxes on good rock and but faceted snow. The ridge narrowed to a technical gendarme laden and rather narrow ridge with unstable and precariously balanced snow mushrooms . The exposure, position and good rock provided some epic climbing. It took us 12 hours to reach the couloir and finish the main buttress cruxes. Unforecasted clouds began to build and covered up the sun not allowing us to res and dry out during a brew up as planned and instead we had to push on. We reached the summit ridge and then caught a glimpse of the dark grey clouds on Foraker next door and began to descend. We connected with our high point from the first attempt and began a familiar descent down the SE buttress (the first attempt route). 26hours round trip.

Graham seconds the x-factor cornice. X for the unkown variable that allowed the cornice to remain attached to the mountain. This marked the end of the Nebula Arete and we climbed up several hundred feet of the face to join the Lunar Spur our first attempt route~Mark Allen

After waking in the tent Graham and I calculated the remaining food and decide to go for one last attempt. Due to remaining energy, time, and resources we focused on the most direct line via a central couloir that trails into the upper snow headwall climbing nearly a plum line to the summit; the most obvious weakness. We had to commit to using our “return” food for the ascent (still only a couple of bars) leaving only 4 oatmeal packets for the 25km ski back to Kahiltna Base Camp. We nervously rested in perfect weather and watched the first hot day start the spring shed cycle, making massive avalanches come off the peak. We rested and got stoked to fire.

On May 26th at 10:30pm we headed up the Central Couloir. We found perfect neve and ice and blasted the face averaging 20-25ft/min and 1200ft/hr We reached the old high point on the summit ridge in less that 5 hours and summited in 3 simul-climbing pitches; 5hrs:45min at 4:15am opening the new line To the Center (4500ft AK4 AI2, Cornices). The descent was a long and blue collar involving technical down climbing and rappelling on the SE ridge to the SE buttress decent. We arrived at the old bivi on the SE Buttress and waited 4 hours for the snow to cool and descended back to our camp arriving at 7:15pm totaling 20:15 hours return.

This ascent felt good and validated all of our previous attempts and incomplete lines with a summit line that connected our two previous high points. This established three lines now that can be climbed to the summit.

We coined the peak Voyager Peak. Named after the satellite that launched in 1977 by NASA which is pushing further and further into outer space sending back information about deep space and carrying a payload of information about earth in case anyone else picks it up. This reflected the feeling that was evoked by exploring the NW fork of the Lacuna.

Voyager Peak Topo and Route List:

Topo of our 2011 exploritory activity colminating three viaable routes to the summit yet only one complete route to the summit. Our yellow line marks the descent used for all three climbs.~Photo Graham Zimmerman

We pushed the 25km ski back to Kahiltna Base Camp in 13 hours running on fumes and returned to congrats and smiles from the park staff and friends keeping tabs on our project. This was the most adventurous Alaskan odyssey that either of us had been on and our persistence to succeed rewarded us with a beautiful summit of a remote unclimbed peak in Alaska’s great range. We thank everyone for the support and we hope you will join us next year for our nomadic wanderings in to the vertical world we are choosing to roam.

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About Me

Mark is the Director of Expeditions Northwest LLC,
a booking network for climbing trips worldwide. Mark is a Washington native and cut his teeth in the North Cascades 1991 and began guiding in the Northwest in 2001. Now he is currently a Full IFMGA Mountain Guide; AMGA Rock, Ski, Alpine Certified and a AIARE Level II Avalanche instructor. When not personal climbing across the US Mark divides his time guiding extensive Alpine, Ice, Rock and Ski trips in the North Cascades, Colorado’s San Juans, and European Alps. Mark’s shoulder seasons are typically spent by annual spring migrations to Alaska to alpine and ski guide in the Alaska and Chugach ranges, rock guide in Red Rock NV and Joshua Tree CA, or high altitude mountaineering in Nepal. Mark’s personal interests are alpinism and ski mountaineering descents in areas that still need exploring. His academic background is in geology with an emphasis on mountain building processes. On his days off he explores the undiscovered corners of his back yard — the North Cascades and San Juan Mountains.